Twenty Memories
by antiassasinguy
Summary: NarutoKurenai. Twenty moments that revolve on how Naruto and Kurenai got together from the day he was a child, to the time he turns into a man and admits his love.


A/N: I don't own Naruto. One-shot…

Twenty Memories

**1)** Despite what most people think, Naruto's first crush was not Haruno Sakura; it was Yuuhi Kurenai; they met when he was four and running away from Konoha for the first and what would be his only time doing so. She was the sixteen year old Chuunin that stopped him from taking a foot outside the walls of Konoha. Coincidentally, this was when young Naruto declared he would marry her. She just laughed and said that he would have to break the height difference first. Naruto forgets about this over time, but wonders why he keeps dreaming of wine-red eyes and a musical laugh.

**2)** The next time Naruto sees Kurenai it is as the teacher that shows up in the academy to demonstrate the capabilities of Genjutsu and how to utilize the Bunshin no Jutsu to its full potential. Nobody, including Naruto himself, knows why, but every single time Naruto looked at Kurenai, his blush turns into twenty-three shades of red, not that Kurenai herself notices. Inuzuka Kiba takes note of this event for future use.

**3)** When Naruto fails the Academy graduation test the first time, he is depressed. That is when Umino Iruka takes him out for a bowl of ramen for the first time in the history of his life, and he savors it. During his second bowl he sees Kurenai once more and Iruka, seeing Naruto ogling at the red-eyed woman, mentions that she is leaving the Ninja Academy to pursue a career as an active Chuunin and Jounin. He doesn't know why, but he thinks that he is going to miss her.

**4) **When Naruto fails the second time he is not taken out to ramen by Iruka, but by the Hokage himself. They hit it off like a normal grandson and grandfather. Once again, Yuuhi Kurenai passes by Ichiraku, and Naruto is caught, this time, by Sandaime Hokage, staring at the beautiful woman. Sarutobi-ojiisan tells Naruto he doesn't mind him marrying a vixen like _that _into the family. Sarutobi then felt a searing pain between his legs the next moment and Naruto walks off.

**5) **When Naruto finally graduates, he goes to Ichiraku Ramen alone and encounters Yuuhi Kurenai once more, this time eating alongside a rather gruff male Jounin with a beard and an ape-like build. He sits down and orders his food, the corner of his eye he spies the attractive woman, something small sparking inside him. When she finally leaves, Naruto is blushing and the Ramen chef, Ichiraku Teuchi, mentions to Naruto that he sees red-eyed blondes consuming mounds of ramen and running off leaving Iruka ro pay the bill. Naruto lets out a "hmph" and pronounces his love for Sakura, but Teuchi knows better.

**6) **Whilst waiting for Kakashi to arrive for the first time and pick his trem up, Naruto spies the red-eyed woman once more, picking up the "Team Jacket" as he pronounces it, and leaving. But before leaving she slips the blonde a wink, and for the love of him, Naruto does not know why he has the image of a musical laugh and red eyes. Sasuke and Sakura notice this, but keep quiet. Sakura keeps it in her "Blackmail List" while Sasuke thinks about how the blonde would fall before he reaches his goal; Hokage or love.

**7) **Naruto is actually a _very _talented artist. One day, before the Chuunin Examinations began, Naruto offered to draw a portrait of every single one of Team Seven as well as Iruka. The result was a rather fashionable one, and for at least once, Uchiha Sasuke acknowledged how good Naruto is at drawing, despite his below average hand-writing. But the only ones who notice an extra sketch of a red-eyed woman with a smile on her face are himself and Kakashi, and thankfully trained in ANBU, Kakashi learned not to tease Naruto, since he himself had a crush on Tsunade of the Sannin when he was a kid.

**8) **During the Chuunin Examination, Naruto has a chat with Kiba before the written test is taken. The only one question that Kiba listened to, though, was that Naruto asked how their teacher was doing. He quickly took this note down into his head and grinned; this was Kiba's first step in obtaining Hyuuga Hinata. What Kiba did not know was that Hinata didn't _like _Naruto, but Kiba; Naruto was merely what she wanted to become; a big brother figure. Sasuke, despite showing no emotion, knows Hinata very well, and is silently amused by the whole affair.

**9) **When in the waiting room, Kakashi has a talk about their teams between the two Jounins, and asks of what they think of the whole affair; he is just taking this opportunity to find out more about Kurenai's thoughts on Naruto and finds out that she respects his hard work ethic, but sees no way of him beating any single one of her students. In this moment Kakashi groans and thinks to himself: "You picked a helluva woman to crush on, Naruto". This is the reason behind Naruto's rather loud sneeze in the middle of the exam.

**10) **Whilst he was unconscious in the Forest of Death, Naruto was dreaming about his beloved Sakura-chan running through a field of flowers alongside him. The dream then disappears and Uzumaki Naruto encounters his nightmares about Kyuubi for the first time in his life, but in a flash of light, he is enveloped by an unknown woman with dark hair and red eyes, protecting him. Before the dream continues Naruto is woken up by the InoShikaCho trio and he is left wondering where the woman went until he notices Sakura.

**11) **When Naruto fights Kiba, Kakashi is greeted with a sense of irony. Kurenai had mentioned that Naruto, despite being a hard worker, would never beat Kiba or sny single one of her students. Naruto, to supply the irony, hands Kiba his behind back to him, with even _more _irony, by farting in his face and performing the Uzumaki Naruto Rendan. Kurenai admits to Naruto being a powerful contender for Chuunin, despite lacking brains and assists Hinata when she hands him over some medicinal cream. She doesn't know however, why in the world did she feel as though she should punch Naruto through a wall for accepting it?

**12) **In the middle of Naruto's and Gaara's titanic battle outside the village, Naruto was at his wits end, drained and his limbs were no longer responding to him. When he turns around and looks at Sakura being held by the sand, the image suddenly changes; it shows Kurenai in the grip of the gigantic raccoon of sand and Gaara slowly crushing her; his insides boil and his eyes rage with fire as he resolves to win and protect those he cares about. He ends the battle by head-butting Gaara and ultimately, winning the battle for Konoha. In a sense, Konoha should thank Yuuhi Kurenai for being the only one who cared enough to bring Naruto back to where he belonged.

**13) **When Naruto and the others give chase to Sasuke, his mind is only filled with the promise to Sakura; not as his crush, but as one of his closest friends. He would do his best to fulfil that promise, and as a side note, make sure Kiba makes it back alive, as Kurenai treasured him like a little brother. He fails to do so, but still prays that he made it back alright; because Kiba was the same to him, dog breath and all. And when he fights Sasuke, the raven-haired traitor mentions Kurenai, and tells of the negative aspects to Naruto to counter Naruto's pleas for Sasuke to return. The moment Sasuke mentions that Kurenai would match better with _himself_, Naruto snaps; dashes at Sasuke and kicks him in the nuts… with _Kyuubi's chakra_ empowering his foot. The Uchiha is brought home in agony, over the shoulder like a sack of potatoes and Naruto mentions that he's sorry; he didn't know why he did that and hoped that he could still rebuild his clan. Sasuke says nothing of this, too embarrassed to do anything.

**14) **Two years, six months, one week, two days, eleven hours and four minutes pass and Naruto returns from his training journey and everyone is surprised at how much more "Naruto-ish" he has become. He still has his old personality, despite the combat maturity and has a combination of orange and black as his choice of clothing. In a surprising turn, he has become more popular with the ladies and the third tallest among the Rookie Nine, behind Shikamaru and Chouji. The most significant aspect of Naruto's return, though, is the fact that when he met up with the old Team Eight, was that he slipped on a banana peel and crashed into Kurenai, bringing them both to the ground into a rather compromising position. Naruto gained two things from that: one, his first kiss from a woman, although accidental, and two, the burning hatred of Yuuhi Kurenai's fanboys.

**15) **When Naruto is promoted to ANBU in place of a Chuunin promotion, upon his return from the rather successful infiltration of Orochimaru's hideout, he is assigned under none other than Mitarashi Anko's command. Add the fact that she was one of Yuuhi Kurenai's closest friends, and you get real material to work off. Anko, who knows Kakashi well, was told by him of his student's crush on Kurenai, and she laughs her head off just listening to it. So when Uzumaki Naruto joins her band, she pokes and prods at the Kyuubi container about the woman, until he is nothing but a mass of red blush. He would never look at Yuuhi Kurenai the same way again.

**16) **When Naruto is finally promoted to Special Jounin, he is at the age of fifteen years, ten months and five days. That made him a rank above Sakura, although the girl was going to take the Jounin exams sometime soon alongside Sasuke. As a Special Jounin, which by the way, was a side affect of him being an ANBU Commander; he had his perks and used his rank to convince Yuuhi Kurenai to go on a date with him… unsuccessfully. Kiba and Sasuke were laughing like maniacs the whole day.

**17) **When Naruto goes into the Jounin exams, at the age of sixteen, he decides to take the course of the "Jack of All Trades", also known as the Sannin Course, which, if you were already a Jounin could promote you to Sannin, or if you were still a Chuunin, made you not able to take the exams for two years. Predictably, Naruto not only _passed_, but he _equaled _the record of the Yondaime Hokage, chalking up full points. In his test of skill, however, he was faced with the most embarrassing choice of an a opponent; a certain pervert by the name of Hatake Kakashi, which, to be noted, _would _and _should _have beaten Naruto within the first three minutes, using his own Sexy no Jutsu and turning into Yuuhi Kurenai. But after those three minutes Naruto won hands down, thanks to his speed, and Hatake Kakashi was subjected to torture by Kurenai for using her as a model.

**18) **After Danzou's betrayal, Kurenai was devastated to see her favourite Uncle as a child behind bars for the remainder of his life. Naturally, she ran to the closest form of comfort; Asuma. When Naruto saw them both together, he saw red, _literally_; his eyes turned red quality of the Kyuubi's and he felt a knife through his heart as he walked away from the scene. Kurenai did not know why Kakashi was giving her the cold shoulder the week that followed, nor why Iruka and Anko did the same. Kiba, however, felt that Naruto was being selfish. For a whole year Naruto would not talk to Kurenai, opting to go for the final push against Akatsuki. Alone.

**19) **When everyone learned of Naruto's sacrifice against Akatsuki, the village wept and the Rookie Nine were saddened, as well as the Kazekage, the Mizukage and practically everyone that Naruto knew, but none so more than Yuuhi kurenai, who remembered the blonde little four year old that she had convinced to stay in Konoha. On the eighth day of mourning, however, the streets cheered the name; a name of one they had thought dead. Naruto had returned, and he was here to stay. It turned out that he wasn't dead; merely swept away a couple of miles from the battle site. And through the crowd, Yuuhi Kurenai leapt into his arms, tears flowing down her face as the confetti fell around them.

**20) **Sasuke, for all that it's been worth, _still _had not been introduced to Shizune after all his careful planning in getting them together.


End file.
